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President Mamnoon Hussain Thursday said there existed a huge potential for local production of poultry, dairy and livestock in Pakistan and the foreign investors could benefit from the most flexible and investment friendly policies of the country.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony of Pakistan Poultry, Dairy and Livestock Expo -2018 here, the President said during the past few decades, apart from the introduction of new trends in this sector, there had been a decline in the quality of these products causing several issues of health and nutrition in the country.

The ceremony was also attended by President Dairy Cattle Farmer Association (DCFA) Shakir Umer Gujjar, Chairman Bukhari Group Sardar Rafiq Khan and CEO Landmark Communications Syed Muhammad Ali Hamdani. The President hoped that the exhibition would provide an excellent base for the development of this sector as well as economy of the country and congratulate the organizers on holding this successful event. He said despite being the basic human needs, the meat, egg, milk and other related industry had been facing a decline in the quality of these products causing several issues of health and nutrition in the country.

The President said even more disturbing fact was that the society was flooded with unverified information due to the rise of the market economy and lust for maximizing profit. Moreover, various elements have misled the masses for their material gains.

The President said besides affecting the nutritional habits of the people, the introduction of numerous sub-standard and poor quality brands had also increased the financial pressure on the consumers. He said one of the reasons behind this situation was the race to gain maximum profit as well as the non-professional attitude. President Mamnoon hoped that the exhibition would promote the professional trends and healthy competition in the production and sale of poultry and dairy products to make the quality products accessible to the consumers besides strengthening the local industry.

He said Pakistan was rich of diverse and conducive seasons, huge pastures and meadows, but unfortunately, during the last few decades, this sector faced neglect due to many global and internal issues, misguided policies and uncoordinated strategies. Resultantly, he said the country’s true potential in this sector was overlooked and such trends flourished which were not conducive for the environment and the people of Pakistan.

He observed that the opportunists took advantage of this situation and the entire market was hijacked by different trends while the consumers suffered the most. He said the biggest challenge for all of us was to enhance the local potential as due to some reasons, the local breed and dairy products were sidelined. He appreciated the organization of this Expo and congratulated the organizers including Embassy of Netherlands for their support. Apart from exploring new avenues of progress in this field, I hope that this exhibition would also be a source to attract local and foreign investment, the President added.